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Fool’s Day Parade Occidental

There’s still two days left in the 100 people in One Week sketch challenge! The social media air waves have been filled with speedy people-sketches. Maybe it’s getting a little much? Nevertheless, since I’ve been busy in my own way, here’s some samples. Whether or not I get to 100, who cares? Certainly not me.

The lovely lady in the Fool’s Parade towering over us and waving her flag. (done from a photo of course!)

If you live around Sebastopol you may recognize this guy – a fixture in the community, always dancing around with the manic look in his eye.

And one last Hubbub Club musician in the signature colors (and hiking shoes).

Bob (my husband) was learning a new book binding method and let me use this tiny one for my 100 people. The newspaper was a good source of faces that day. I did two of Attorney General Barr because the top one didn’t reveal the tilt of the head and other signs of stress. I almost got Netanyahu’s smirk, but need to learn to exaggerate more!

Lurking in the Whole Foods dining area here. The paper is smooth so the paint sits on the surface – actually pretty fun to work with as the colors creep into each other.

I’m using fountain pen with brown ink here, and discovering the fact that I can no longer see clearly across a room without my distance glasses and can’t focus on my sketchbook and brush without my prescription readers. Time for graduated lenses, but until then. . .messy sketches.

The black thread is a bit distracting, but I love this little book because I can feel free in it!

Another day at the restaurant at Cornerstone Gardens. More sketches (not people) from there later.

It was actually raining on our way over to Occidental for the annual Fool’s Day parade. Great weather for fools to go parading around town in costume for no other reason than – well actually – tradition, for more than a decade. (And really, only a fool would try to walk in a parade and sketch people in constant movement.)

But oh, how fun to try. And I thought today would be a good time to share the sketches since it is also the first day of the #oneweek100people2019 sketch challenge (and I was teaching today and had no time to sketch people!)

The Hubbub Club is the marching band that shows up at so many such events in Sonoma County. They are self-described as “twenty volunteer musicians and second-line dancers who make music together in a funky, fun fashion to promote, uplift, and support local communities. . .at local rallies, benefits, farmers markets, town parades, music venues, and just jamming in the street. . . a cross between a New Orleans marching band and a Fellini movie.” They were out in the parking lot here warming up for the parade.

Tomorrow is Fool’s Day of course. But you’ll have to wait til next Saturday to celebrate Occidental-style with the annual Fools Parade. This is some of the best sketching of the year with many of the townspeople dressing up as the fools (I am sure they are not) and parading down the main street of town, accompanied by the Hubbub Club marching band and lots more foolery.

Whether or not you want to dress up as some kind of fool and march in the parade, or just come and gawk and sketch, you are invited to join me and others for a sketch meet up. Here’s the details:

Details

Join in the fun of this whimsical tradition where families in this picturesque town in the redwoods dress up as “fools” and parade their silly way down the main street in town, ending at Occidental Center for the Arts. Experience extreme frivolity, bands, music, crowning of the King and Queen of Fools, Lunapillar rides and more!

Meet at noon in the parking lot of the Occidental Community Center to sketch people getting ready for the parade, which starts at 1pm. Walk in the parade while sketching, or sit on the street and watch. To sketch people in costume, there’s no better setting. (Some sketchers will be in costume too.)

The Hubbub Club band will provide live music, and there will be food of course. It’s all totally foolish and fun. What better excuse do you need to get out of the city and go exploring in Sonoma county?

There are people to direct traffic and help with parking nearby.

I will be there in my tutu at noon and later walking in the parade. We can meet back in the same parking lot of the Community Center after the parade to see presentations by Zero the Clown and others on the Podium of Impossibility and share sketches after that, around 2:30 or 3 behind the Community Center where the bleachers are.

While waiting for sketchers to arrive I met Baan who was kind enough to pose. Her mermaid tail was a kind of hand-sewn blanket which added the marine effect to the gourd hat. A mix of themes creating a perfect fool-style costume.

There was time for a quick picture of us with our green “official fool” badges before the parade.

It was about 85 degrees in the shade by the time the parade got started and the parade was NOT in the shade. Wiltingly I marched along for a while.

Switched to the brush pen which gets the idea down faster when there’s movement.

After a bit of walking I ducked into the shade to watch and wish I had an umbrella. I’m not sure how I would have managed the sketching with the umbrella? And at this point the brush pen ink seemed to be melting, so I switched pens again.

The butterfly lady was added at the end of the parade when I was all warmed up and cooled down, sitting on a stool in the shade!

And this one, while sitting around with the other sketchers, enjoying the last bit of fanfare and then sharing of sketches.

Next year will be my fourth year of foolery and I’ll be ready again! Zero the Clown will be back with his declaration to “do anything that brings fun, silliness, harmony, happiness, celebration, relaxation, health, love, joy, creativity, pleasure, abundance, grace, courage, balance, spontaneity, passion, beauty, peace and life energy to thyself and all other beings everywhere.” I figure that about covers it.

I ventured out with two other sketch-loving-fools. Carole and Suzanne, to capture the Fools Day Parade action in Occidental on Saturday and try to crack the code of how to sketch a parade while everything/one is in movement.

Two of us situated ourselves at a picnic table bench outside a corner store and right behind these four fools in wigs while waiting for the parade to begin. They were actually relatively still or at least would return to a pose frequently. The blue and the pink wigs required special paint which was added later – Daniel Smith’s Electric Blue and Holbein’s Opera.

And finally the parade, which consists of the town’s folk in fool costume (a quirky version of Halloween) walking down the street to the music of the Hubbub Club musicians. They were momentarily held up long enough for me to sketch Snow White. I spotted our third sketcher, Carole, standing in the middle of the street, oblivious to traffic, sketching madly. . .and rescued her!

Now we’re standing up in the crowd waiting for the “coronation” of two children as King and Queen of Fools (for 5 min.) by the grand wizard.

Accompanied by His Imperial Nothingness clown, who was also holding his accordian, which I didn’t have time to sketch. . .

A fool eating lunch and enjoying the open mic concert in the Arts Center. By this point the marine winds were blowing through town and we were grateful to sit down inside to sketch some more and put some paint on the sketches while listening to local talent.

You’ll find it all here, where I’ve been sharing my life in art since 2006 with sketchbooks, paintings, contemplative writings, workshop demos, and invitations to join me in art play and discovery! -Susan Cornelis

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